The gull-bird passes by him, shrieking like a child, but its body coasts a straight line into the waves crashing against the back of the cave.

He jumps down just as the pitter of bare feet erupt from the cave entrance and cross the dead fire.

It is there that he lands, before the ash, in the mouth of the cave. The child cannot return to her sanctuary, so she sits herself down beside the fire and it grows light again. The Doctor joins her on the opposite side, a question on his lips, to which she brings a length of string from the ether and weaves it along her fingers in a cat’s cradle.

The string in her hands becomes a box as she loops her fingers.

She holds it up for him to see, then loops again. This time, a crude bird, triangles for head and beak, and triangle wings.

She loops again, this time making triangles near her face, with her teeth on the string. The bird is flying.

She takes his fingers now and places them on some of the string, then loops again, using her thumbs this time. A circle between her hands, inside a box. It must be the Eye.

She weaves and loops again. The bird is broken, with one triangle wing held down. Had the box fallen on the bird? Must have been the crumbling wall he’d seen earlier.

She takes his finger again, places it on the bird, makes a loop. The bird becomes a triangle and two lines. A person perhaps? Yes- there are two loose loops for hair. Is she trying for curls?

She loops again. This time, another person, smaller, with only a couple of straight lines for hair. He guesses that it’s her.

Story summary

Thanks to the Doctor and Amy Pond, the memory which restored the universe also restored Gallifrey. With the Ponds off on a honeymoon planet, the Eleventh Doctor comes home to check up on the Master. But as we all know, decay touches every heart...

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